Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos received pressure from hundreds of best-selling authors urging a settlement to its pricing dispute with Hachette Book Group, and in response extended an olive branch to authors, offering them all the proceeds from their e-book sales while the dispute rages.

But it looks like just more bad publicity for the online retailer as the authors, led by Doug Preston, do not appear likely to take up the offer.

Amazon now says it is willing to give authors 100 percent of the proceeds from e-book sales while the pricing dispute continues.

Authors have been hurt because when the publisher balked at Amazon’s new terms, the e-tailer retaliated by removing pre-order buttons from its website for Hachette authors and slowing down shipments to consumers.

Amazon said the offer would remove the authors from the middle of the dispute.

Preston, author of the Pendergast thriller books and a leader of the petition, told Bloomberg News that he could not accept the peace offering terms “on moral or ethical grounds.”

And he said it was likely to violate the existing contracts authors have with their publisher

He was, however, at least talking to Amazon.

“My message was, ‘Look, we’re not against Amazon, and we’re not for Hachette — all we’re asking is for you both to settle this problem without hurting authors,’ ” Preston said.

He said he could reap millions if he accepted the offer of a full cut on e-books, but it would come at the expense of the company that has published him for years.

Hardcover book sales have been flat to down in recent years for all publishers — but digital book sales have been growing at a double-digit pace and it is clearly going to play a larger role in the future.

In the pricing dispute, Amazon is trying to set tougher terms with Hachette, claiming the costs of producing e-books are drastically lower and that it therefore wants to reduce the publisher’s cut and pass the savings to consumers.

Hachette countered that it could not afford the deep discounts that the online retailer demanded because its job of publishing involves not just selling an e-book but finding, editing, marketing and distributing books in all formats.

Preston’s e-mail letter last week called on consumers and authors to push Bezos to settle the dispute.

So far, Preston said between 600 and 800 authors have responded — a number which has doubled in just a week.

A separate petition has been circulating largely from self-published authors who said they supported Amazon in the fight against the New York publishing monopoly.

A spokeswoman for Hachette said that Amazon had sent a brief proposal on Tuesday — but it apparently did not move the needle much.

“We invite Amazon to withdraw the sanctions they have unilaterally imposed, and we will continue to negotiate in good faith and with the hope of a swift conclusion.”

Hachette has said it would be suicidal to cut itself from its e-book revenue stream while the dispute remained open.

“We call baloney,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. “Hachette is part of a $10 billion global conglomerate. It wouldn’t be ‘suicide.’ They can afford it. What they’re really making clear is that they absolutely want their authors caught in the middle of this negotiation because they believe it increases their leverage. All the while, they are stalling and refusing to negotiate, despite the pain caused to their authors. Our offer is sincere. They should take us up on it.”